Migration routes vital for elephant conservation

Harriet James @harriet86jim

Latest statistics indicate that Kenya’s elephant population has doubled in the last three decades from about 16,000 to 34,800 individuals.

This is as a result of various conservation and management strategies set in place to guide recovery.

Through these stringent measures such as imposing longer jail terms and higher fines for poachers, the menace of poaching has been eliminated.

Consequently, for the past five years, the country has not had any incident yet. However, a much more looming crisis is facing elephants today. 

“We should not just talk about the numbers, but also how we should balance between human population and the animals.

We need to think about the carrying capacity and if it’s not visible, how do we recognise other areas where these animals can be placed?

We don’t want to kill animals, but it’s important for us to know how to handle them when there is overpopulation.

We don’t want conflicts between communities and conservation. We need a coexistence strategy,” said Tourism and Wildlife CS Najib Balala in an event marking World Elephant Day at Amboseli National Park. 

Elephants are ecosystem engineers; they ensure recycling of plant material by eating large amounts of food per day and depositing dung further away due to their large home ranges. 

Smaller areas

They are perhaps one of the most cited examples ecosystem engineers because of how they are able to remove large amounts of woody vegetation in an area. 

In ecosystems such as Lewa, for instance, elephants have reduced woody vegetation cover by over 30 per cent in the last 20 years.

In areas with heavy shrub, elephants often open the landscape up, increasing grazing plant diversity found in those areas, and by extension, encouraging other grazers and browsers to come in. 

However, there have been rising cases of human-elephant conflict happening in old migratory routes either blocked by new developments or breaking into farmlands.

These land use changes have been said to have adverse effects on elephants.  

Not only are elephants squeezed into smaller areas, but also farmers plant crops elephants are likely to eat, resulting in frequent raid, crop destruction and even loss of lives. 

Urban areas in the middle of elephant migratory corridors will see more sightings of elephants such as in Kitengela, Athi River, even Kiserian. 

“The future of elephants in these areas depends on whether they can be tolerated by local land owners and communities. Human-elephant conflict is emerging as a major threat to elephant population in Kenya. 

Changing land use such as irrigated agriculture and unplanned settlements will fragment wildlife dispersal area and delink Amboseli National Park from Tsavo and Kilimanjaro ecosystems,” noted Kenya Wildlife Service Director General Brigadier (Rtd) John Waweru at the same event. 

Dr David Kimiti, Head of Research and Monitoring at Lewa Wildlife Conservancy, says if elephants are in a space for longer than they usually stay (due to drought, conflict, among others), the main visible impact is usually on vegetation.

At crossroads

“For woodland or woodland savanna, especially those without trees that have evolved to withstand elephant browsing, the consequence will be a gradual transition to grassland,” he explained to People Daily in an interview. 

When elephants get too crowded in one area, they have a natural instinct to disperse across long distances.

They can walk up to 100 kilometres  in a day, to cover massive areas in search of suitable pasture. 

Dr Kimiti adds the main way to alleviate such concerns is to ensure there are sufficient corridors between different habitats that allow them to migrate large distances. 

“The Ngare Ndare Forest and Lewa provide a corridor through which elephants can move between Mount Kenya and the Samburu landscape.

I haven’t seen any study yet done on the maximum number of elephants in an area, but the main thing is we need to continue ensuring connectivity between landscapes that elephants utilise.

We need better urban planning that takes these migratory paths into account,” insists Dr Kimiti. 

Other countries such as Botswana employ culling to reduce numbers of elephants, something widely criticised by conservationists.

In Kenya, elephant conservation is at a crossroads from trying to simply spur elephant numbers to grow by reducing poaching, and ensuring land use and land management policy is compatible with these increased numbers. 

“Right now we are faced with a situation where human-elephant conflict is on the rise and will continue increasing unless we start making better decisions with regards to urban planning, large scale infrastructure development, and landscape-level habitat connectivity,” warns Dr Kimiti 

Jumbo islands 

World Wide Fund for Nature indicates that 63 per cent of Kenya’s protected regions are located in the savannas, translating to nearly 75 per cent of wildlife spending a lot of time in adjoining landscapes.

It, therefore means a successful wildlife conservation project and in particular, that of elephants has to address changes taking place in areas outside the existing network of protected areas. 

“We need to be careful if we talk about overpopulation. Is it the fact that the elephants are too many or that human beings are disorganised?

The government has not instituted land use planning. There are desert lands that have been turned into farmlands which has impacted connectivity.

In the past, Amboseli elephants could migrate from there to Mara or even Tsavo, but right now, they have become an island,” explains Dr Winnie Kiiru, an elephant expert and senior technical advisor at Elephant Protection Initiative